


Hard Truths

by Woolverine



Series: Reye Vidal Appreciation Week [5]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-02
Updated: 2017-07-02
Packaged: 2018-11-22 08:28:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11376414
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woolverine/pseuds/Woolverine
Summary: Set in the immediate aftermath of the Nexus Uprising.





	Hard Truths

**Author's Note:**

> Set in the immediate aftermath of the Nexus Uprising.

Reyes Vidal was up to his pretty face in trouble. Again. It seemed like he had been in trouble for his entire life. 

Andromeda was supposed to be different. He was supposed to be different. Leaving behind the old, the burdens which had been weighing him down, should have freed him.

By the time Reyes had realised the enormity of mistakes made while still a teenager, it had been too late to remedy them. He had skated through school, the classic underachiever, doing just enough work to get through classes and exams. There were more important things to be done, like having fun with cute boys and gorgeous girls, getting hold of substances to make that fun more fun, ‘living his life’, he’d called it. He had only scraped into the Academy when he could have waltzed in as a star cadet. His classmates were nearly as clever as Reyes, and had always worked hard. He’d never worked properly, lacked their breadth of understanding and knowledge, initially struggled to maintain their intellectual pace, because natural intelligence can only take you so far. 

He’d managed to make up nearly all the ground. It hadn’t been enough. Reyes hadn’t made it into the top 5%, hadn’t been able to take his pick of postings. The day of his graduation he had looked at himself in the mirror and damned his younger self for arrogance. He was in a pit of his own digging. His classmates would always be ahead of him. Reyes would never be able to catch up and reach the heights he dreamed about. Teachers had warned him, family had warned him, but cocky young Reyes had known for certain he could never fail. 

It had been a hard truth to discover. An even harder truth to live with. He was never going to be the total success he wanted, because of his own damn stupidity. He was never going to be satisfied with the success he did achieve, because he would always know he was capable of more. Reyes choked down his bitterness, accepted the full blame, and made the best career he could with his less than perfect academy scores. 

Every commander Reyes served under was impressed by his drive and skills, but always wondered why he hadn’t been top of his classes at school, at the academy. Because if he had been, Reyes would be on a fast track to command posts, instead of having to claw his way up each ladder, with his own record pulling him back down. 

Joining the Initiative, travelling to Andromeda, was supposed to change his destiny, give Reyes the chance to progress on his own merit, without his less than stellar academic scores getting in the way. 

Instead, he was stuck as a shuttle pilot, still under the command of people without his brains, his quickness, his abilities. Sure, things might improve. Tann, Addison, and the others might be able to turn this shitshow around. Reyes doubted it. There needed to be a new variable to alter the equation, to make the Nexus work, for the Initiative to survive. There weren’t going to be any new variables any time soon, especially after the riot Tann had named a mutiny. 

If he wanted to survive, and Reyes did want to survive, he needed to get away from the Initiative before it died, and took the Nexus with it. 

The ‘mutineers’ were being banished. Others, not involved in the fighting were also taking the opportunity to leave and make a life for themselves in Heleus. Of those, many could not pilot with the skill needed to navigate the Scourge. Reyes had that skill. 

This, then, was what Reyes had to decide. Should he stay here on the Nexus, with no control or say in events, in what happened to him? Or should he take a ship, load it with exiles and their goods, and take them where they wanted to go? For a suitable fee, of course. A person had to be practical. A person had to be pragmatic. 

A person had to survive in order to achieve success, and Reyes wanted success. He wanted recognition. He wanted to be someone. 

And another hard truth was, it would be impossible to satisfy the insistent craving in this rigid power structure. 

Reyes decided then. He would leave. He would make a place for himself amongst the exiles, make a name for himself, and make his way to the top of this new ladder.


End file.
